Peter Walker
gone but not forgotten
Robson's 1839 edition seems to me the best of the early directories, with a street-by-street list as well as the alphabetical lists of firms, both by name and classified trade. Also it fits in exactly with the excellent map published that year by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, which John Houghton posted a few weeks ago.
I know people have been busy transcribing census returns on to Excel databases, but am wondering if anyone has done the same or is doing so for directories. I have made a start, and have completed all the surnames and company/institution names beginning with A, all 355 of them, in just under a week.
Question 1
Before I go any further, can I ask if anyone has done this already.
The Column headings I've used are First name, Surname (or firm or institution name), House No., Street name, and district (often a major road nearby).
Question 2
Will my Microsoft Excel software be able to handle a file of that size? It would be very nice to be able to sort by street, name and trade. I've also thought of adding a new column for trade groups (like the modern Yellow Pages and Thomson directories do) because the Victorian description of trades was a bit irregular.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Peter
I know people have been busy transcribing census returns on to Excel databases, but am wondering if anyone has done the same or is doing so for directories. I have made a start, and have completed all the surnames and company/institution names beginning with A, all 355 of them, in just under a week.
Question 1
Before I go any further, can I ask if anyone has done this already.
The Column headings I've used are First name, Surname (or firm or institution name), House No., Street name, and district (often a major road nearby).
Question 2
Will my Microsoft Excel software be able to handle a file of that size? It would be very nice to be able to sort by street, name and trade. I've also thought of adding a new column for trade groups (like the modern Yellow Pages and Thomson directories do) because the Victorian description of trades was a bit irregular.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Peter